EXCERPT: “A long-vacated office building in South St. Paul is slated to be converted into a 68-unit apartment complex, and city officials anticipate it will spur other apartments and retail in a corridor that currently lacks both. Minneapolis developer Master Properties has received approval from the city council to renovate and repurpose the roughly 70,000-square-foot, four-story building at 161 N. Concord Exchange, just north of Interstate 494 and east of Concord Street. The project, estimated to cost $10 million, will bring new apartments to the city for the first time in nearly a decade, said Ryan Garcia, the city’s economic-development manager.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2AYGyhZ

EXCERPT: “Amid tight markets with little new supply, housing affordability continues to be a spreading problem. This remains the case even though the median price of homes sold in the third quarter of 2017 compared against the second quarter was actually lower in 29 of the 50 markets we reviewed.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2jdR62l

EXCERPT: “Businesses in communities short of housing commonly donate money to build apartments, or help employees buy homes, but a central Minnesota meatpacker bought an entire apartment building to shelter some of its new employees. Long Prairie Packing, part of the Wisconsin-based American Foods Group, bought an old apartment building in Alexandria three years ago mostly for new workers. ‘We can bring people to the area, get them settled in their jobs,’ American Foods’ President Steven Van Lannen said. It is not like a company town of years past because the idea is for the workers to move on to other homes, often eight to 10 weeks after starting with the beef packer. The building had been used mostly by Alexandria college students, Van Lannen said, and its small rooms do not work well for families. But it is a good recruiting tool for people new to the area or the meat packing business, he said.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2BEF4Xg

EXCERPT: “The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority is going to offer some carrots to get landlords to accept low-income tenants. Come May, however, they’ll also have a stick. In testimony before the Community Development Committee of the Minneapolis City Council this week, the authority’s leadership detailed a series of incentives and policy changes meant to remove reasons cited in the past by landlords for not taking Section 8 tenants, who pay rent with the help of government-subsidized housing vouchers.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2AkEZda